She boarded the vehicle long before anyone else. She always boarded first. That way she could get a quiet seat in a corner and she was likely to be overlooked. She preferred it to being noticed. It was safer and allowed her to observe without being distracted by idle chit chat or confrontation.
She watched everyone board from the corner of her eye. She'd learned long ago that looking at someone directly was a sure-fire way to be noticed but if you weren't obviously watching you could see so much.
The family was stressed. Mom and Dad were happy enough with each other but the boy, Jethro, was going through a rebellious stage. It was kind of funny really; he was almost the same age as she was but his black clothing, black fingernails, artfully tousled hair was such a juvenile rebellion that she could have laughed. He sat two rows up directly in front of her and he was the only one who so much as glanced at her. She was staring at her book, though, and he dismissed her from his mind.
Then the Professor and his companion Dee Dee boarded. He was a typical, blustery, minor academician who bullied his companion in an attempt to feel somewhat more important. Still, there was no real malice in him that she could detect, just a subtle despair that academic greatness had passed him by. Dee Dee was sweet and most likely clever although not clever enough to figure out a way to make it through the academic jungle without hitching her wagon to someone like the Professor. Still, she was young and had a justifiable optimism about her.
The hostess and Mrs. Sky Silvestry boarded next. The hostess was typical for the fleet, businesslike, bored, but capable. She would be angry when she discovered Willow's presence, not because Willow had done anything wrong but simply because Willow hadn't notified her from the start. Willow didn't much care; the hostess was employed by her father's company not the other way around.
Mrs. Silvestry was interesting; very well dressed, makeup perfect, hair immaculate, book clutched in one hand and purse in another. She seemed like she should be the happiest person there but she wasn't. She was angry and sad and frightened. Willow actually wished she had the gift of conversation so she could engage Mrs. Silvestry and try to draw her out. But she wasn't a conversationalist and let the moment pass. And then he came on.
Willow was drawn to him instantly. He didn't even say a word, just strode onto the vehicle and stood there, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet and taking everything in with a small but excited grin. He was going to make this an exciting journey, she could tell. His was the sort that enlivened everything up and made everything new and exciting. She held very still, willing him to overlook her. His attention would exhaust her and she didn't want to be noticed. Her desire was granted a moment later when he made his way to a seat in the very front.
The hostess bustled around delivering ear plugs and ear phones and other treats and then activated a truly torturous array of "entertainment" and retired to her single seat in the rear compartment. Willow had one earplug in and the other halfway to her ear when a high pitched warble distracted her and then everything died. It was heavenly and she sat up straighter in her chair to breathe in the silence.
Fortunately she was short enough that she was still pretty much hidden in the back as the man, the one that she knew would enliven the journey, immediately began conversations with the other passengers. The conversations he got going with various people were fascinating, she hadn't read a single line of her book but had listened instead. The way he got them to open up and talk was simply marvelous. She couldn't imagine how he did it. He even managed to engage the angry, frightened, sad Mrs. Silvestry in conversation.
But then the car stopped and the mood of the room began darkening quickly. At first it was just irritation. None of these people accepted a delay calmly, they were busy, they had schedules to keep, they were too important (in their own minds) to be inconvenienced. Willow, however, was mildly frightened. She'd done her research well before choosing this experience and these trips were virtually foolproof. No vehicle had ever encountered any trouble at all. This was anomalous and that meant there were risks. Willow didn't like risks. The new was frightening and she never trusted her abilities to respond to the unexpected properly. She sank back down in her seat as the mood in the cabin darkened further with the man's reappearance from the engine compartment.
Why were they so afraid of broken schedules or oxygen failing? She'd seen it before and it never failed to baffle her. Sure, she was scared, but she was scared of the unknown and she was very frightened of her fellow passengers. She didn't lend too much credence to her powers of prophecy but she couldn't pretend that she didn't have a rising dread that something terrible was going to come of this interlude. Everyone in this cabin was about to face the core of their being and none of them would be the same afterwards. And then there was a double knock from outside the cabin.
Willow gasped, her arms wrapping around knees as she drew herself into a frightened ball of flesh. Nothing was supposed to live on the surface of Midnight! What was it? What could it be? What did it want? She whimpered softly into her knees, feeling a malevolence radiating from outside the vehicle. Everyone in cabin felt it too and the terror inside grew to the point that Willow found it difficult to catch her breath. Even the man felt it.
Oh he was excited and intrigued by the banging but even he was nervous about it. Even he could feel the malice. Willow felt like she should say something but she knew she'd never be heard over the babble of the other passengers. The knocking moved around the outside of the cabin and Willow could almost feel the presence evaluating the reaction of each passenger. She'd almost fainted when the knocks first sounded directly over her chair but apparently her fear had been unsatisfactory – and the creature was enjoying their fear. Willow didn't know how she knew it but she did, just as she always knew which people were safe and which people were dangerous to be around. Right now the only safe person in the vehicle was the man in the blue pinstripe suit. He was trying to understand. Properly apprehensive but not ruled by fear. Everyone else was descending into an animalistic fear, especially Mrs. Silvestry.
Sky's terror galvanized Willow and she jumped from her seat, trying to reach the woman before –
The lights went out, the cabin rocked violently from one side to another, the fear rose to a crescendo and then it was still and dark. Willow climbed to her feet, ignoring the ache in her ribs where she'd collided with a seat and the lump on her forehead from an armrest and stared through the darkness to where Mrs. Silvestry had been. A light pierced the darkness and the hostess told everyone to grab a flashlight from the back of their seats. Willow ignored her, staring at the woman huddled at the front of the cabin. She was too still. She wasn't afraid anymore. Sky Silvestry was gone, of that Willow was quite certain.
More babble from the passengers, only the man was trying to make sense. Then Jethro noticed Sky too. Maybe he saw the horror on Willow's face; maybe he felt the wrongness that she felt too.
"Look. Look at her." he urged everyone, training his flashlight beam on Sky.
The man went to her and spoke to her gently, coaxed her to look at him. As soon as she looked at him, though, he knew as well as Willow did that what gazed out through those pale blue eyes had nothing to do with Sky Silvestry. There was no expression on her face but she could almost see the smile of pleasure in her mind as the people grew more and more agitated as the creature inside of Sky repeated every word spoken in the cabin.
"Don't talk." Willow begged through a throat clogged with terror. "It wants us to talk. Don't talk."
"Wait a minute! Who are you? Where did you come from?"
The man's attention was diverted to her and she fought back a shiver as the creature's cold eyes latched on to her.
"I'm Willow," she whispered nervously, her eyes flickering from one angry, frightened face to another.
"Where did you come from?"
And the babble broke out again, repeated by her.
"I boarded before everyone else," she told them, doing her best not to let her anxiety show. If they knew how frightened she was they'd turn on her, she just knew it. "I've been sitting back there from the start."
The man shot a question with his eyes to the hostess and who quickly checked the roster. It was quite fascinating to see, how he could give a command and get it followed without even speaking a word. Willow was most impressed. The hostess looked up from the boarding list with a grudging respect – she recognized Willow's surname and wasn't happy that she was there.
"Yes. She's a legitimate passenger. I didn't notice her, though. Why did you hide?"
"And I never noticed you, either – why?" the man – the Doctor – wondered.
"I don't like to be noticed. I wanted to see the sapphire falls though," Willow was finding it difficult to catch her breath as the weight of all those eyes focused on her.
Her anxiety was peaking and she was afraid she would hyperventilate and pass out. In the back of her mind, though, a thought nagged. The creature didn't like her. It liked the fear of the others but it didn't like her – why?
The Doctor stepped up to her and locked eyes with her, practically boring into her mind with that hard gaze. Whatever he saw seemed to reassure him and he stepped back a moment.
"Well, that's not important, what's important now is the situation in hand."
"Shhh!" Willow begged but was ignored. She carefully kept her gaze averted from Sky. Probably it couldn't jump into her from eye contact but who really knew?
"That's not Mrs. Silvestry, is it?" someone demanded.
"I don't think so, no," the Doctor answered soberly.
He then pleaded with them to simply wait quietly until rescue came so that they could try to figure out what it was in Mrs. Silvestry and whether or not she could be saved. Willow could have told him to save his breath. These people were scared and something was feeding that fear. She could feel it pressing on her but it couldn't get in, possibly because she was already terrified of the people around her.
She looked back at Sky and noticed her gaze flicking between her and the Doctor. And then the hostess said it. Voiced the words Willow had known and dreaded were coming.
"We should throw her out."
She gasped in dismay, her hands pressing helplessly against her lips and tears sparkling in her eyes. The Doctor begged, pleaded, reasoned with them and Willow could feel his almost superhuman control getting frayed as well. The creature's "fear field" wasn't pressing on him the same way it was the others but it was affecting him as well. Perhaps that's why he couldn't seem to take his own advice and just shut up. It wasn't going to end well, this Willow could sense.
A tear trickled down her cheek when they agreed to be murderers and she couldn't be silent any longer.
"No!" she shouted. "No! I'm not a murderer!"
"Thank you!" the Doctor approved.
"I'm not killing anyone," Jethro agreed.
But she and Jethro were dismissed as children and the Doctor's declaration that they'd have to go through him was met with the assurance that he was expendable. Another tear trickled free. Of course he wasn't helping his case any with his secrecy and arrogance but he wasn't the enemy. They couldn't see that, though, their suspicion and paranoia growing to homicidal levels in mere moments.
"Stop it! Stop it!" she shouted, her hands pressed to her head. "It's doing this, can't you tell? Why are you letting it do this?"
Tears welled from her eyes, as they often did when she was extremely stressed. She hated it. Crying made people dismiss her as emotional or childish.
"Stay out of this. As far as I'm concerned you're part of this too," Biff grated dangerously.
"We're all part of this!" she snapped back, glaring at him as she tried to will them to see the truth. "And it is loving this! It's just eating up all of this negative energy. Can't you see that?"
They paused for just a moment at that to look at Mrs. Silvestry, who stared back with that lizard-like intentness.
"It doesn't change anything," the hostess declared resolutely. "She's dangerous and needs to be thrown off."
"But why? Why is she dangerous?" Willow asked. "Has she hit anyone? Threatened them with a weapon?"
"She killed the driver and the mechanic and probably killed Mrs. Silvestry." Dee Dee pointed out logically. Willow almost wanted to smack her.
"Maybe," Willow conceded. "But she hasn't harmed you, or you, or you." She pointed in turn to each of the greatest agitators. "Why can't we just wait quietly here for rescue OR for her to do something overtly dangerous? Why should we kill her now?"
"Thank you," the Doctor said again, breathing an almost sigh of relief.
"Who ARE you?" Val demanded of him. "We don't even know your name. You talk as if you aren't human."
More tears trickled down Willow's cheeks. She had known she couldn't dissuade them but she had tried anyway. Some of this was the creature applying some sort of psychic pressure and some of it was her own failure at communication but the rest was simply the worst of human nature rising out of tragedy. Her foreboding grew as she watched the Doctor dig himself in even deeper with his claims of superiority and cleverness. And then, when he declared to them all that they needed him, Mrs. Silvestry stopped repeating the others. Willow's head snapped around to look at her, crouched and watching, malevolence and pleasure radiating from her.
She'd stopped repeating everyone but the Doctor. Everyone looked at her when they'd all verified that Mrs. Silvestry wasn't repeating them, obviously wanting her to test whether or not she was with them or with the Doctor. Willow didn't want to test it. She didn't know whether she was more afraid for Sky to be continuing to repeat her words or ignoring them.
"Well, say something," the hostess demanded.
Willow simply shook her head. She didn't want to know. She just didn't want to know...
"Go on," the Doctor urged eyes alight with curiosity and speculation.
"I don't have anything to say," Willow whispered and Mrs. Silvestry's chorus was actually louder than her words.
"So, it's still got their voices but not ours," Biff noted with not-so veiled malice.
The others nodded to each other as their paranoia and aggression rose.
"How do you explain that, Doctor? If you're so clever…" the Professor demanded.
"I don't know," the Doctor and Silvestry said in unison.
Willow screamed in her mind as he went closer to Mrs. Silvestry and ordered to her "stop it". Then he did it. He knelt in front of her, almost seeming compelled to reason this being out and understand.
"Don't, don't, don't, don't," Willow whispered desperately but both Sky and the Doctor ignored her. In fact, she might as well have already been thrown off the train for all the attention anyone paid her.
"Mrs. Silvestry I'm trying to understand," he told her. "What do you need? You need my voice in particular… The cleverest voice in the room…" They mused in unison.
"Not the cleverest." Willow said her quiet voice lost in the duet. "Just the least scared. Just the most rational. Clever isn't important."
Not even the creature in Mrs. Silvestry heard her. It was fixated on the Doctor and Willow shivered in dread, knowing that this was absolutely not good.
"Listen whatever you need, if it's a voice or a body or whatever, I'll help you. And that's a promise. So, do we have a deal?" the Doctor declared but she finished the last sentence before him.
"No!" Willow gasped and ran towards the Doctor. Jethro grabbed her and halted her halfway down the isle.
"She spoke first!"
The others gasped and muttered and mused as Willow struggled against Jethro's hold. The creature in Sky ignored her as the knelt down in front of the Doctor and stared into his eyes. He was in there. They were the eyes of an animal in a snare; wide, frightened and trapped.
'Help me!' they screamed but Willow didn't know what to do.
"Oh, look at that, I'm ahead of you," the creature said slowly and trembling with strain the Doctor repeated her. "I think it's moved. I think it's letting me go." She continued, triumph welling from her as terror welled in the Doctor. His eyes flashed frantically from Willow to Sky and fine tremors shook his body as he futilely fought to release himself.
"Mrs. Silvestry, is that you?" the Professor asked.
"Yes." she answered, still staring at the Doctor.
"No." Willow denied, looking desperately at the others.
And the Doctor faithfully repeated Sky's every word against his will.
"Look, it's passed into the Doctor. Whatever it is it has transferred into the Doctor," Jethro declared.
"No, it hasn't!" Willow insisted. "Look at her eyes! Look at his eyes!"
And they ignored her utterly; all except for the Doctor who beseeched her silently for some salvation. Willow knew this just had to be his worst nightmare. He was helpless, frozen in place and unable to even speak. His only words came from his captor and tormentor. For a man like him, one who was used to taking control and fast talking, racing around and otherwise using his innate people skills to salvage the situation, this had to be a particularly evil form of hell. And Willow could feel the cold satisfaction of the creature feeding on the Doctor's terror.
"Look at me," Sky said, smiling and wiggling her fingers. "I can move. I can feel. I'm coming back to life."
Willow wondered why the others didn't hear the protest in the Doctor's voice as he repeated her words.
"And look at him. He can't move."
Sky looked at the Professor and asked him to help her move.
"Don't. Don't do it," Willow begged but he was already pulling Sky to her feet and leading her to the back of the cabin.
"Oh Doctor, what can I do? How can I help?" she asked him as the others clustered around Sky. Only Dee Dee and the hostess were suspicious.
"Fight it," Willow urged him desperately. "You can do it. You're clever!"
Only his trembling answered her. He was still there, she could tell by the tremors and the wide eyed look of terror but he was utterly helpless. She felt that dread growing, as did hers, as the others ignored Dee Dee and the hostess arguing that the creature was still in Sky and focused on their distrust of the Doctor. The creature in Sky egged them on and they never even noticed it. Why couldn't they see it?
"I will!" Biff responded to his wife. "I will throw him out! You just watch me."
"No!" Willow shrieked throwing her arms around the Doctor's shoulders. "No, you can't! It's murder! He's in there!"
"Yes! Do it. Do it now!" the creature urged them gleefully.
Mr. Cain tried to pry Willow's arms from the Doctor's neck but Willow kept grabbing on as fast as he pried her off.
"Fine then, we'll throw you both out!" he snarled.
"You don't want to do that!" Willow snarled back. "You really don't want to do that."
She let go of the Doctor and stood to her full height, glaring fiercely at Mr. Cain.
"And why is that?" he asked, intrigued enough to lose some of the fear that the creature was working into them.
"Because my father owns this company," she told him grimly, hoping that she was actually speaking the truth and that her father would actually want to avenge her death. She was the misfit of the family, an embarrassment that they ignored as much as possible. Still, it was the only hope they had.
"You might get away with killing a tourist like Mrs. Silvestry or a stranger like this man but my father will never allow my murder to go uninvestigated."
She could have sworn she felt a surge of hope from the Doctor at her declaration followed immediately by an increase in malevolence from the creature.
"Then we won't kill you," Mr. Cain hissed, his eyes flicking to his son in an unspoken command. Willow felt the situation tilt out of any control at all.
"Look at her!" She sobbed clutching the shoulders of the Doctor's jacket desperately as Biff grabbed him under his arms and pulled against her grip. Of course Biff was stronger than she was and they were both pulled down the isle by him.
Willow looked desperately into the Doctor's eyes and felt like her heart was breaking at what she saw there. The optimism he'd felt sputtered and died and his eyes grew bleak and hopeless. Tears began trickling down her cheeks again as she too felt the desperation of the situation.
"Look at her eyes and look at his! You've got it wrong! It's her! It's her!" she begged wretchedly. "Please, please…"
And then Jethro was there, prying her away and holding her back as the Professor and Biff pulled him towards the doorway. She could hardly breathe through the tears as she felt the Doctor resigning himself to death.
"Cast him out," Sky crooned and he repeated with just enough tension for Dee Dee and the hostess to continue to doubt. "Into the sun and the night."
"It's her!" Willow moaned as the Doctor repeated Sky's words.
Jethro's grip loosened and she pulled away to clutch the back of a seat. He let her be when she didn't move towards the Doctor again.
What could she do? She had to do something! What? What?
Willow caught the hostess eyeing Sky and then the emergency exit. But it would be suicide!
"Faster!" Sky urged the panting men as the Doctor seemed to become caught up on every projection and obstacle. An unholy glee illuminated her face. Why couldn't they see it?
"You can do it! Molto bene…"
"Molto bene," he gasped, despair radiating from him.
Sky practically giggled, reveling in the anguish. Willow caught the eye of the hostess as she looked back from Sky.
"That's his voice! She took his voice." The hostess gasped.
Willow shook her head slowly – it was still suicide. The hostess stared at the emergency door release and then at Sky. Then she nodded once and then grabbed Sky, dragging her with her to the door and hitting the emergency release, flooding the back of the cabin with the white light of the X-tonic star.
The men broke away from the Doctor and Willow sprinted for the hostess, leaping over the Doctor's prone form.
"One.. two…" She didn't see Willow but Willow got there at "four" grabbing the hostess towards her and kicking Sky against the door seal. Before Sky could respond the seal broke and she was pulled out onto the surface of Midnight while Willow and the hostess fell backwards into the cabin.
"It's gone!" The Doctor gasped as almost everyone else huddled where they were, some crying others merely sickened by the reality of what they'd almost done.
"It's gone, it's gone, it's gone, it's gone," he panted in dazed relief.
Willow collapsed into sobs, barely feeling the hostess envelope her in a reassuring embrace. The Doctor crawled along the floor to her and grasped both women convulsively.
"Thank you," he whispered into Willow's hair, fine tremors still wracking his body. "Thank you, thank you, thank you..."
"I killed her. I murdered Sky," she sobbed. "I didn't know if she was dead and I killed her."
Willow felt cold and a physical pain throbbed through her chest. She was lost in recrimination.
"You saved me and you saved them," the Doctor told her and the hostess.
He took Willow by the chin and levered her face up to look at him. Leaf green eyes locked with brown and a level of understanding connected them. He understood her guilt, grief and self loathing.
"You did what you had to," he assured her.
"I killed," she reiterated. "I can't undo that."
"No," he agreed, pulling her closer. "No you can't."
It didn't make any sense but his words eased her just a little. He understood and he didn't reject her. That meant something. What it meant was a bit unclear still, but it did mean something.
"But why didn't you get swept up like the others?" he wondered a moment later. "Every one of them was ready to kill except you – why?"
Willow's breath caught on something that was almost a laugh. Trembling with the remnants of terror at his near death and still he was curious.
"I'm not like them," she admitted in a voice rough with tears and abraded by the shouting she had done. "I think it made the fear and suspicion worse for them. I could feel the fear outside of me like, like air pressure or water but not in me."
"Why? Why were you different?"
"I have autism," she said simply.
The Doctor looked surprised and the hostess just looked blank.
"I didn't know autism existed anymore," he marveled slowly.
"Father was too arrogant to have his genome tested and they didn't have me tested for defects before birth. They fixed my nearsightedness and scoliosis with gene therapy but gene therapy can't rewire the brain. By the time I was born it was too late."
"I'm amazed they were even able to figure it out. Not one physician in a hundred knows about autism anymore. And you are very functional."
"Well, I've had a lot of training to enable me to cope. Nothing will make me normal, of course, but I can pass for them if I keep to the outskirts and keep my mouth shut most of the time."
"But why didn't it choose you then? Why target Sky and the Doctor and not you?" Dee Dee wondered.
"Sky was vulnerable. She questioned her worth and she wasn't even sure she wanted to live anymore. It was easy to take her over because she had no foundation. I'm an outsider and I know people don't like me but that doesn't mean I don't like myself. I would not only have fought it, I would have been able to fight it more effectively because I'm not off balance by some shock to my entire world.
"And the Doctor was the primary threat to it, not me. He could lead you and rally you and none of you would be truly vulnerable until it eliminated him. You'd have all just ignored me even if I did try to wake you up. In fact, you did ignore me.
"But as soon as he was gone I'm sure I would have been next. Then the hostess and then you, Dee Dee," Willow finished quietly.
She was as sure of this analysis as she had been that the Doctor was still inside his frozen body and it frightened her anew to realize how close they'd come to utter catastrophe.
"Is it still out there?" Jethro wondered uneasily.
"Probably," Willow admitted. "But it's sated for now. I think it will go digest the feast it's been given and leave us alone for a while."
"Then we aren't safe!" Val was prepared to launch into hysterics when the Doctor and Willow fixed identically disgusted looks on her.
"We're just as safe as we were when we boarded this vehicle," Willow pointed out.
"The rescue truck will be here in ten minutes. We'll be out of here before it realizes we're escaping," the Doctor promised them wearily.
Willow looked at him but said nothing to contradict his optimistic assessment. Then she relaxed into his embrace, wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned her head against his shoulder. They leaned on each other for strength in the complex silence that enveloped the cabin.
Twenty minutes later she reluctantly released him to board the rescue vehicle. She instantly wished his arms were still about her. She was still cold to the bone and sick to her stomach. When he'd held her she'd at least felt tethered to the world. Then his hand grasped her, sending a wave of warmth through her and she breathed a shuddering sigh of relief.
"C'mon. Let's go back," he urged her quietly.
She could feel him radiating comfort and support and encouragement.
"Oh yes, let's," she agreed tremulously.
She still wanted to cry and she still felt lower than pond scum but when he held her hand she felt more solid.
On the trip back they were left in peace. The inquiries would doubtlessly come after they'd returned to the leisure palace. Val and Biff huddled together, talking rarely and watching their son Jethro. Jethro sat as far from them as the vehicle would allow and brooded. The Professor also sat alone, hunched over in a fashion that fairly shouted that he'd been broken on a very fundamental level. Dee Dee and the hostess sat next to each other and occasionally spoke to each other but mostly sat in silence.
"You were marvelous," the Doctor assured Willow quietly.
Willow tried for a smile to reassure him but she seemed to be all out for the moment. It was kind of weird seeing him so subdued. He'd practically been a force of nature during the crisis.
"I killed," she finally whispered, still sick at heart.
"Maybe," the Doctor countered. "You don't know that Sky wasn't dead already, though. And the creature had to have been some form of energy… you certainly didn't kill it."
"Whether she was still alive inside or not doesn't matter," Willow told him quietly. "I don't know that she wasn't and I pushed her outside anyway. That makes me a killer."
He sighed and squeezed her hand a little tighter.
"Yes, I know," he agreed sadly.
They made the rest of the journey in silence. It was a sad silence, a thoughtful silence and even a healing silence. And at the leisure palace they disembarked last. He squeezed her hands and looked at her once they'd entered the foyer.
"I'm always looking for a traveling companion with a good head on her shoulders," he told her seriously. "Would you be interested?"
"I…"
She looked torn.
"I don't know. I think I'd be a liability to someone like you. You need someone who can interface with others for you and I can't do that."
"Take this," he said, handing her a cell phone. "If you ever need me, use it. I promise I'll help you. I owe you."
Of course then he had to show her how to use it as the technology was nothing she'd ever seen. And then he returned to Donna to begin his own healing while she made her way to the executive suite to phone her father and explain why he needed to pull off of Midnight immediately. It wasn't a conversation she was anticipating. She was 25 years old but being short, slender, and frankly odd put her at an immediate disadvantage with everyone because they all still saw her as a child. Everyone, that is, but the Doctor. He had seemed to see her as a fully functional person. It was a balm to her battered spirit. For the first time in her life someone actually seemed to understand her and accept her just as she was. His offer was looking up by the moment.